"Execution" is, in my humble opinion, one of the weaker episodes of the overall magnificent first season. It deals with the - for The Twilight Zone, at least - familiar and almost common theme of time- traveling and the irresponsible and bizarre consequences this may have. Somewhere in the Far West in the late 19th Century, hoodlum Joe Caswell is led to the gallows for the grisly murders he committed and he doesn't show any remorse whatsoever. As he's hanging by the neck from the oak tree, during his death struggle, Caswell suddenly vaporizes into thin air, leaving the priest and the local Sheriff flabbergasted and suspecting witchery. Caswell wakes up in the laboratory of Dr. Manion who successfully performed his first and long-awaited time transporting experiment and Caswell just happened to be the random guinea pig. Dr. Manion notices the marks of the hangman's noose around Caswell's neck, but it's too late, as he already picked up his old bad habits and fled into the city. Here, however, Caswell quickly realizes that 20th century society is murderously loud and that there criminals more vicious than he is. Although the idea and basic concept of this episode is once again very good, I personally wasn't too convinced with how it got processed. The time traveling aspect, and particularly the random traveler selection, remains quite vague. I do acknowledge, of course, that TZ episodes are too short to provide waterproof details on all plot aspects. The sequences showing our cowboy criminal struggling in the hectic and noisy metropolis are definitely powerful. The ending is original but abrupt, and the sudden dragging in of a third protagonist I found disappointing. I think I would have preferred if they kept it between Joe Caswell and Dr. Manion.
